President Geingob wins Namibia election with 56.3% of the vote
Sunday December 01 2019
Namibian President Hage Geingob (centre) arrives at a campaign rally on November 23, 2019 in Windhoek.. He was re-elected president. PHOTO | GIANLUIGI GUERCIA | AFP
Windhoek,
Namibia’s incumbent President Hage Geingob has won the 2019 presidential election with 56.3% of the vote, the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) said on Saturday.
He ran on the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) party ticket in the November 27, 2019 presidential election.
The president has survived the country’s biggest corruption scandal, an economic recession and a fractured ruling party.
President Geingob, Namibia’s third leader since the sparsely populated and mostly arid country freed itself from the shackles of apartheid South Africa in 1990, was seeking a second and final term in the November 27 election.
Mr Geingob was educated in the US and Britain and started his career at the United Nations before he entering into national politics. He served as prime minister for 14 years.
First elected president in 2014 with 87% of the vote, Geingob garnered 56.3% this time and avoided a potential re-run against a member of his own party, Panduleni Itula, who was running as an independent.
Itula, a dentist-turned-politician, trailed behind with 29.4% of the vote, and the leader of the official opposition party, McHenry Venaani, was in third position with 5.3%.
President Geingob told cheering crowds that he was proud that the elections were free and fair.
“I am just a proud Namibian that we could have free and fair elections, no fighting, no attacking each other, free movement was allowed,” he said.
In the legislative vote to choose 96 members of parliament, the ruling party lost its two-thirds majority after the ruling party secured 63 seats, down from 77 seats. The ruling party has enjoyed a two-thirds majority in parliament since 1994. The official opposition party, Mr Venaani’s Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) party, will hold 16 seats, improving from its 2014 total of five in the legislative chamber.
Opposition leader Venaani told Reuters that they were considering approaching the courts over “anomalies and irregularities” during the election.
The Head of Mission and Defence Minister of Zimbabwe Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said everything was calm on voting day, and there were no disturbances.
The country has a population of 2.2 million. About 70 per cent of the population lives in the rural areas, and about 60 per cent of that is concentrated in the seven northern regions.
Namibia, a large though sparsely populated country, has enjoyed stability since gaining independence in 1990 after a long struggle against South African rule. The country is known as a global leader in conservation tourism and community empowerment.